Town manager realigns his administration

Marc Orlando becomes Bluffton’s deputy town manager.

Town Manager Anthony Barrett has tweaked his administrative team with a realignment that includes new titles for division heads and some employee reassignments.

The recent changes involve no pay changes and no major shifts in responsibilities, Barrett said.

Marc Orlando, formerly assistant town manager for growth management, is now the "deputy town manager/director of growth management," Barrett said.

Two other top administrators, finance and administration head Shirley Freeman and engineering head Bob Fletcher, had their titles changed from

"assistant town manager" to "director of" their respective departments.

"The appointment to deputy town manager will not be a part of the daily operational process and structure but will only be invoked in writing when desired or required. There is no change in pay or grade accompanying this title addition," Barrett wrote in a memo to his top administrators.

For all involved, Barrett said Friday, "just because their titles changed doesn't mean their workloads, what they're doing, changed ....

"It is aligning the organization more traditionally to the way I'm used to having it." When he came to Bluffton, Barrett returned to a career of more than 25 years in county and municipal management after having worked about six years in private commercial development in Virginia.

The change to a deputy town manager and no assistant managers was made in part because the mayor and council "wanted a designated person they always could go to when I'm out of town," Barrett said.

Now, Orlando will routinely be in charge when Barrett is out of town or on vacation, instead of having the acting manager spot rotate between assistants. As growth management director, Orlando continues to be in charge of its three divisions, the offices of Construction and Compliance, Planning and Environmental Sustainability, and Community Development.

In his memo to top administrators - Orlando, Freeman, Fletcher, Human Resources Director Jessie Hershey, Police Chief David McAllister and Town Clerk Sandra Lunceford - Barrett wrote: "These changes are in accordance with evolving organizational management requirements and the desire of our elected officials to have an appointed 'Deputy Town Manager' in place during any Town Manager absences. "

The changes went into effect Oct. 1 but were never announced. Some of the new titles appeared in staff memos to the council for its monthly meeting on Tuesday.

At the same time, Barrett made these changes:

He appointed Frank Hodge as "Assistant Director of Growth Management without a change in pay or grade." Hodge keeps his responsibilities running Growth Management's Office of Construction and Compliance. Barrett said Hodge will be in charge of growth management when Orlando is serving as acting town manager.

The stormwater compliance engineer position, held by Ron Bullman, and the environmental project technician position, held by engineering intern Sam Conner were moved from Growth Management to the Engineering Department. (Compliance Engineer John Carmack and Environmental Protection Manager Kim Jones remain in Growth Management's Planning and Environmental Sustainability office.)

The lieutenant titles in the police department were changed to captainwithout any change in pay or grade. That made Bryan Norberg and Angel Tubbs captains.

McAllister said the rank promotions reflect their duties and put them on a par with peers in other law enforcement agencies. "They are senior staff level at the police department, and what we realized is we are a paramilitary organization. When they go deal with other senior staff (in other agencies), it's kind of making sure their rank is recognized for what they do ... that they are command levels."

On the transfers to engineering, Barrett said, "we're moving engineering to a different level ... We've got the planning aspect and then we've got the execution."

Overall, he said of the changes, "It's putting the talent where we think the talent should be to accomplish the mission the mayor and council want to accomplish."

The town continues to use interdepartmental teams for coordinating major projects, he added.

SUBHEAD: Earlier alignments

The assistant town manager titles were created by Bill Workman, who was town manager before he retired and Barrett came on board Sept. 1. Before being laid off in 2009 as part of staff and budget cuts under Workman's administration, Tim Bennett had the title of deputy town manager.

Using the former organizational chart, under both Workman and Barrett, the assistant town managers were on a rotation to serve as acting manager when the boss was away, Barrett said.

As deputy town manager, Orlando steps back into an administrative role he's had before, having served as interim town manager last year between Barrett's hiring in mid-July and his arrival Sept. 1, 2009. In the search for Workman's replacement, Orlando made it to the No. 2 candidate.

Bluffton's form of government has the council appoint a manager in charge of daily operations and all other hirings except town attorney and municipal judges, which the council also appoints.

Bruch Behrens was hired as Bluffton's first full-time town manager in November 1999. The town previously had a strong-mayor form of government that put the mayor in charge of day-to-day operations and hirings.

Now, the council's only other direct hires are the town attorney and municipal judges.